Sunday, July 1, 2012

I love reading rock ‘n roll autobiographies. But with the flood of them in the marketplace now, hearing about drugs and debauchery all over again and again almost seems like the same story, just a different storyteller. Dee Snider's memoir Shut Up And Give Me The Mic steers clear of that. As drinking & druggin’ wasn’t part of his lifestyle, you won't find here the tales of drug abuse that so many of his peers repeatedly write about. In fact, in the very opening it's pretty apparent that he takes a swipe assumingly at a particular Motley member by asking if the reader has ever known a junkie, questioning how they kept a journal and going on to say "real heroin addicts can't hold their own dicks, forget about a pen or pencil."

It’s the story of a struggle, sticking to what you do best, not giving up, realising your dream, making it big, and losing it all, and then reinventing yourself.

Dee has no problem telling you how big his ego inflated, which resulted in driving a wedge between him and his Twisted Sister band mates. As a larger than life character and leader of the pack, its not hard to see why only the spotlight shone on Dee. Who else in the band could generate that attention, Eddie Ojeda? I think not. Or as Dee puts it best when he says “not one fan gives a shit about the other eleven members...and out of the five that count, only one is being paid to write about his life, and it ain’t Jay Jay.” Haha, well said Dee. Check fucking mate.

You wanna know about the corruption of the music business in ways you only imagine? Dee justifyably goes into great detail about this, how the presidents at the major labels pratically hated Metal music, and quickly turn two-faced when Twisted actually made them money of course, but still would pull the plug on proper promotion and support.

Not many artists would have the balls to call these people out on their bullshit. Dee throws daggers at them right between the eyes.

His story is inspirational when hearing about the one thing that was constant through his up’s and down’s, that being the love for his wife and family. You get the sense that it truly is the most important factor that got him through it all. With a marriage to Suzette for 35 years+ and 3 very grounded sons and a daughter with their own strong talents, that may be the most rewarding acheivement in his life ... I somehow think he’d agree.